DANBURY — At the dawn of a new season, the Western Connecticut State University men’s soccer team has found itself in a position in which it hasn’t been for more than a decade: defending a championship.

The Colonials captured the Little East Conference tournament championship last year for the first time since 2005. It was a tremendous accomplishment for a once-mighty program that had gone from being a perennial qualifier for the NCAA Division III national tournament to posting 11 consecutive losing seasons from 2006 to 2016.

In two seasons under coach Joe Mingachos’ direction, the Colonials have returned to prominence. The idea now is to continue climbing and not fall back again.

“What I’m looking for is consistency year-in and year-out,” said Mingachos, who was an All-America sweeper for the Colonials in 1989 when coach Wayne Mones guided them to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. “I know you can’t win the conference every year — it would be nice — but we want to put ourselves in a position to compete for a championship every year.”

The program has been in rebuilding mode since Mingachos took the helm in 2016 after 19 triumphant seasons coaching the WestConn women’s team. Last year’s championship gave the Colonials a much-needed — and perhaps a little unexpected — boost of confidence.

“This program is far from being rebuilt,” said Mingachos, who was named the LEC Coach of the Year last season. “We’re in the process of building it, and it’s going to take some work. We tasted that success last year, but it probably came a lot sooner that I expected.”

WestConn’s success last season certainly took many by surprise around the LEC. The Colonials were picked to finish fourth in last year’s preseason conference poll, 23 points behind conference favorite and three-time defending champ UMass Boston. This year, however, with its championship banner proudly displayed at the Westside Athletic Complex, WestConn won’t be able to sneak up on teams like last year. The Colonials are now the team to beat in the LEC. They’ve gone from being the hunter to the hunted.

WESTCONN MEN'S SOCCER

REASON TO SMILE: Senior forward Chauncey Allers gave the Colonials 34 reasons to smile last year, and they’ll be counting on him once again to ignite the offense.

REASON TO WORRY: The Colonials graduated a talented senior class last year that included Shane Bierfeldt, Shane Pugliese, Nick Kyriakidis and Eamonn D’Arcy. Replacing their leadership will be key.

QUOTABLE: “As a coaching staff, yes, we’ve been there, but as players, they have never defended a league championship,” coach Joe Mingachos said. “This is a first for them, so it’ll be very interesting to see how they react to that.”

“We’re all excited to prove ourselves at the next level, show it wasn’t a fluke and show that we’re here to stay,” said junior back and former New Milford High standout Spencer Ranno. “I know some of these teams have really improved over the last year, and it’s going to be really tough for us to repeat, but I think we can do it with this group of guys.”

It’s a challenge the Colonials eagerly accept.

“We are more than excited,” said senior forward Chauncey Allers, a Wilton High School graduate and the LEC Offensive Player of the Year last year with 34 points. “We put in a lot of work over the summer because we know last year we made a statement. We set a new standard for ourselves, and now anything less than that is unacceptable.”

Allers led the conference in scoring last year, and he’ll be joining forces again this year with second-team All-LEC senior midfielders Robert Della Penna of Suffield (16 points) and Darion Richeme (nine points) of Danbury, among others. Also back is senior goalkeeper Luca DiCarlo out of Holy Cross High School in Waterbury, who posted a 0.99 goals-against average in 18 starts last year.